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Colorado Rapids midfielder Brian Mullan has been suspended for 10 games and fined more than $5,000 by Major League Soccer after a horror tackle which broke the leg of Seattle Sounders midfielder Steve Zakuani.

Mullan was given an automatic one-game suspension and a $250 fine after he was shown a red card for his wild, sliding tackle from the side in the third minute of last Friday’s game. But the MLS disciplinary committee took a dim view of the tackle and added an extra nine games and another $5,000 fine after Zakuani was ruled out for the season following surgery to his fractured right leg. “The Disciplinary Committee determined that Mullan’s challenge was reckless, egregious, and showed utter disregard for the safety of his opponent,” the league said in a statement on Thursday.
The suspension is the largest handed out by the league since former Houston Dynamo midfielder Ricardo Clark was ruled out for a total of 10 games and fined $10,000 for a wild kick at an opponent on the floor during a match in 2007.

Byron Moreno (ECU), the referee involved in Italy's controversial elimination from the 2002 World Cup will be sentenced next month in his New York drug smuggling case. Federal prosecutors said Thursday that Byron Moreno faces up to 20 years in prison. His sentencing is set for May 20 in Brooklyn. Moreno was arrested last year at New York's Kennedy Airport after arriving on a commercial flight from his native Ecuador. Authorities say they discovered bags of heroin attached to his body during a routine search. He pleaded guilty in January.

Moreno became a hated figure in Italy after several contentious decisions in its second-round loss to South Korea in 2002.

Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo had one of the fastest ascensions on the international scene. He became a FIFA Referee in 2008, was upgraded to UEFA Category 2 in 2009, moved to Premier Development in 2010 and promoted to Elite in January 2011!!!

Being in his last year of international refereeing, Frank De Bleeckere (BEL) was considered as the main candidate for the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final. Everything seemed to go well for him until two weeks ago when his initial appointment for a quarter-final was suddenly replaced by UEFA with a semi-final. He will be refereeing in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals, either FC Barcelona - Real Madrid (Tuesday, 3 May 2011) or Manchester United - Schalke (Wednesday, 4 May 2011). Having been appointed for a semi-final, De Bleeckere will miss his last chance for a Champions League final.

Pedro Proenca (POR) will be refereeing in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals. He will referee either FC Barcelona - Real Madrid (Tuesday, 3 May 2011) or Manchester United - Schalke (Wednesday, 4 May 2011). The actual game appointment will be published by UEFA 48 hours before the kick-off.

Former head of FIFA's Referee Department, Jose-Maria Garcia Aranda Encinar, has been appointed as an advisor to Russian football chief Sergey Fursenko, the country's football association said on Thursday.
"Garcia Aranda's job would be to consult (Fursenko) on various issues, including better communications with FIFA and UEFA," the RFU said on their web site. "His contract will run through 2014." The 55-year-old Spaniard has also been given a tough task of improving the standards of Russian referees, who have often been the target of criticism for poor officiating.
Garcia Aranda had been one of FIFA's top referees, officiating at the 1998 World Cup in France and Euro 2000 in Belgium/Netherlands, before retiring in 2001. He then headed FIFA's Referee Department from 2003 to 2010.
Russian officials have been trying to improve the image of the country's most popular sport following FIFA's decision to award Russia the right to host the 2018 World Cup.

Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers, who sent off Dynamo Kiev's striker Andriy Shevchenko in their Europa League game on Thursday, was kicked from behind by an enraged fan as he left the pitch, video footage showed on Friday. The clip, from a Ukrainian sports news agency (http://www.proreferee.com/?v4nkkVei), shows a man lunge at referee Bjorn Kuipers with his foot as the Dutchman walked off the pitch at the end of the Dynamo Kiev v Braga quarter-final.
The first leg ended in a 1-1 draw after Kuipers reduced the home side to 10 men on 61 minutes when he showed a second yellow card to Ukraine striker Shevchenko, who had been brought on as a substitute to try to snatch victory. The home crowd was infuriated by the decision to send off Shevchenko, whose second booking was for playing on and putting the ball in the net after being flagged offside. He said later he had not heard the referee’s whistle. Kuipers appeared to have felt the kick because he is seen on the video footage turning around to react.

The UEFA Convention on Referee Education and Organisation has admitted seven new full members and one new partial member to consolidate its work in developing refereeing.

Following ratification by the UEFA Executive Committee, Andorra, England, Georgia, Latvia, Romania, Spain and Ukraine are full members, and Liechtenstein have joined as partial members. A total of 43 associations are full members, with Liechtenstein the one partial member.
The Referee Convention aims to enhance referee education, promoting the role of the referee and improving refereeing structures and development within Europe. When they sign the convention, associations agree to a development plan for refereeing and become entitled to receive a financial contribution for their work, and further annual payments as long as the required standards are maintained.

German FIFA referee Deniz Aytekin halted Friday's Bundesliga game between St Pauli and Schalke 04 two minutes before the final whistle was due. Visitors Schalke were leading 2-0 against St Pauli, who had two players sent off, when the assistant referee Thorsten Schiffner was hit on the back of the head with a full cup of beer before falling to the ground two minutes from time and the referee ordered the teams off the pitch.